***Absolutely thrilled to present the debut release from the duo of RA Washington (from Mourning [A] BLKstar, Vernacular - our recent amazing Astral Spirits reissue of their only recorded album) and Jah Nada (from Bloody Show, Obnox, JZNZ and more). In Search For Our Father's Gardens is a sprawling double LP that features a large 14 piece ensemble cast, including members of Mourning [A] BLKstar, Oneida, and more. The album runs the gamut of sounds from the reverent sounds of Side A, the the soulful emissions of Side B, the meditative drones and rhythms of side C, through to the culmination of it all on Side D's "Bobbi Lynn" featuring guest drummer Kid Millions. Also of special note with the album (and digital download). One brilliantly unique feature Washington & Nada added to both the physical and digital versions of this record - sides B & C were recorded and designed to be played separately and/or together (if you have two record players set up). The bonus digital version is of course called "Side E" and is a great way to see the unconventional thinking and ideas behind the duo.
2XLP $28.85
02/02/2024
***Solo pedal steel guitar from the acclaimed visual artist. Recorded at home in Chicago with additional instrumentation of acoustic guitars, synths and percussion.
LP $19.85
11/17/2023
***Long before the pandemic, Mike Reed had been thinking about isolation, haunted by a 2015 story in The New York Times about the death of a resident named George Bell, a hoarder who passed away at home, his body undiscovered for nearly a week. In January 2022, Reed gathered a group of some of the most creative figures in Chicago’s experimental and improvised music community to put sound to those thoughts of forced seclusion: cornetist Ben LaMar Gay, poet and spoken word artist Marvin Tate, and members of Bitchin Bajas (Rob Frye, Cooper Crain, and Dan Quinlivan). Together, they called the new group and its resulting album The Separatist Party, echoing the loner persona all six musicians transmit at times. It’s the first installment of a three-album cycle involving a varied cast of musicians, dealing with themes of inner and outer human isolation. The six musicians coalesced into an exciting new ensemble commingling a wide array of styles and influences into a groove-oriented expression of communion in the face of crippling solitude. One can glean wisps of Don Cherry’s Organic Music conception, the ecstatic fire of Pharoah Sanders, the cycling minimalism of Terry Riley, the motoric rhythms of Krautrock, the exploratory tones of Sun Ra, and clipped soul of vintage Ethiopian music within The Separatist Party, but no single element arrives wholesale. Mike Reed drums, percussion, Rob Frye tenor saxophone, flute, percussion Cooper Crain guitar, synthesizer Dan Quinlivan synthesizer Marvin Tate vocals Ben LaMar Gay cornet, flugelhorn, percussion
CD $11.00
11/17/2023
LP $19.85
11/17/2023
***Pushing past the submissive qualities of her debut, Silva captures a deep and deliberate pop-forward poignancy in her sophomore Dulce. Written in the wake of her relocation to Chicago, Silva contemplates new love, a listless fate, sobriety, and maternity all the while retaining the patience of her previous release, Eros. Temperate motifs aside, a freer, wilder intensity permeates Dulce. Silva shows her roots in both rock n’ roll and the romantic. The fabric of the album gives palpable hints to her experimental aspirations that make borderline frantic use of the world-class instrumentalists at her disposal. This no holds barred approach results in Silva's most modern statement to date, beginning with the lead single "Love, If It Is So." A perfect avant-pop song that captures Maria in full flight with her studio band featuring the legendary guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Stephen Hodges—reunited for the first time since the pair were part of Tom Waits' seminal Rain Dogs in 1985. Ribot enhances Silva's songs with characteristic inspiration, skill, and abandon—jumping between frenzied guitar arpeggios, Philly Soul electric sitar lines, and subtle nylon string acoustic.
LP $19.85
11/17/2023
***Drazek (fka Mako Sica) with Hamid Drake, Thymme Jones, Joshua Abrams and Tatsu Aoki. A split release with Feeding Tube Records.
LP $19.95
11/17/2023
***Bay area guitarist's latest featuring percussion legend Andrew Cyrille, Francis Wong, Lisa Mezzacappa & more. "In the Filipino language Tagalog, Ngayon translates to “now.” Appropriately, this sophomore effort from Karl Evangelista’s Apura is intended to capture the feeling of an abstract and transcendent present - a moment apart from the desperation and uncertainty that afflicted the past several years of human life. What began as an indictment of fascism vis-à-vis Apartheid South Africa, Trump’s America, and the long lineage of Filipino political corruption slowly morphed into a story about how battling human violence requires endurance above all else. This recording came within a razor’s edge of total oblivion. Conceived in 2019, the original intention behind Ngayon was to provide an opportunity for the great Louis Moholo-Moholo to visit California for the first time in over three decades. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other unpredictabilities, Ngayon was canceled, re-envisioned, and rescheduled countless times. I take some pride but no great pleasure in declaring that only brutal perseverance, dumb luck, and the generosity of others rescued this project from the colossal hole that it dug itself into"
CD $11.00
09/22/2023
***Anthony Davis has been around since the late '70s with releases on India Navigation and more! He's recently composed more operas including his Pulitzer Prize winning work of The Central Park Five. This is a straight up free jazz piano trio, incredible stuff.
LP $19.85
09/15/2023
***PSYCHIC ILLS keyboardist, BRENT CORDERO and SUNWATCHERS bassist, PETER KERLIN's first full length collab A Sublime Madness is the culmination of decades of circling each other's creative orbits. After years of casual jamming, numerous fledgling one offs, and touring sideman gigs. Here, the two sidemen synchronize orbits and create a sound with keys and bass as a molten center. The impetus to embark on a larger collaboration began with an off-handed suggestion after the two recorded an improv duet for Kerlin's, Glaring Omission (2020). Later, with touring canceled worldwide and the untimely death of Psychic Ills frontman, Tres Warren, it seemed like a good time to pick up the thread left hanging “from before” to create something to respond to the moment and/or escape into. But A Sublime Madness is not a strict duo album or a COVID bedroom record, by any stretch. Drummer, RYAN SAWYER (BENT ARCANA) provides torrents of percussion and each tune is built out as the two invite in a crew of past collaborators, legends, luminaries, cohorts and stalwarts: DANIEL CARTER (woodwinds), JAMES BRANDON LEWIS (tenor sax), JESSICA PAVONE (viola), RYAN JEWELL (percussion), CHARLES BURST (percussion), ADAM AMRAM (congas), AARON SIGEL (vibraphone), JESSE DEROSA (modular synth)—each person contributing their musical voice throughout. The result is an expansive sound and vision. A conjuring of spontaneous, collective spirit in which each player’s contribution is highlighted and distilled in conversation with each other over the arc of the record.
LP $19.85
05/12/2023
MP3 $7.99
05/12/2023
FLAC $8.99
05/12/2023
***Tenor and alto saxophones from Aaron Leaney with drummer Guy Thouin is a Canadian free jazz legend and founding member of Le Quatuor De Jazz Libre Du Québec.
LP $19.85
05/05/2023
***"What is a standard to a forest? What makes that different to what’s a standard, in that jazz classic compositional sense, to a desert? To a city? To a suburb? To a plain? A wetland? A grove? The only thing standard in a forest, like any other environment, is the search for balance. Nature seeks an equilibrium and, given enough time, it finds it. It’s the only way to ensure survival and growth. For three albums, David Lord has been exploring this idea, seeking out some sense of the ethereal, with drummer Chad Taylor and producer Chris Schlarb, his only constant companions. All the while, on Lord’s solo ventures under his own name (and even in his prior work under the nom de plume Francis Moss), he’s finding new ways to examine the interconnectivity of trees, of fungi, of ecosystems brought together in harmony and just what that would be for people to make that kind of harmony for ourselves. This third volume is merely the latest iteration of that idea, the results of the latest planted seeds. The ensemble is a bit larger, and so are the ideas, but that’s also how growth tends to work in the forest if things are going right..."—Anthony Dean-Harris
LP $19.85
05/05/2023
***Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble III is an album full of shimmering harmonic atmospheres. It’s emblematic of the Chicago-based ensemble, whose music explores the textures and resonances of their string instruments, namely six and 12-string guitar (Elijah McLaughlin), upright bass (Jason Toth), and hammered dulcimer (Joel Styzens). Throughout Elijah McLaughlin III, they expand their usual palette by including analog synths, field recordings, and melodies from guest musicians cellist Katinka Kleijn and pianist Adler Scheidt. The group taps into overtone sequences made from sonic tapestries, following the music where it wants to go. Intuition is a key part of their work: McLaughlin’s music allows room for his collaborators to branch out and bring their own sonic imprint to the compositions. They listen to each other, letting each voice shine, and finding new textures and sounds together.
LP $19.85
05/05/2023
MP3 $7.99
05/05/2023
FLAC $8.99
05/05/2023
***Superb new album from the trio of Chad Taylor (drums), Brian Settles (saxophones) and Neil Podgurski (piano). Recorded and mixed by David Stoller at Samurai Hotel Recording Studios, May 9th and June 24th, 2002.
CD $11.00
05/05/2023
MP3 $7.99
05/05/2023
FLAC $8.99
05/05/2023
***"Dry-sober: The whole thing is not new. Neither the line-up nor the methodology according to which the music on this record is organized. The two have known each other for 40 years, then as now they just met and started playing, without prior arrangements, earlier out of ignorance, today out of the opposite: the results are amazingly similar. Only: the recordings from the last 40 years, made privately with the tape recorder or later by other means, have never been published. No one has ever come up with the idea. To change that: now the latest, fresh on the turntable." "Humidly-romantic: For lack of friends and out of enthusiasm for jazz, fourteen-year-old Michael Griener and fifteen-year-old Rudi Mahall met in Nuremberg in 1982 as autograph hunters at a concert and decided: We can do that too! Griener's father had a pub, above it was a brothel, and down in the basement storage room was the rehearsal room. There the two of them bumbled around; the experts call this 'free improvisation'. This resulted in countless world-changing musical projects, all highly praised (self-praise stinks!). Now the first and only the best: Griener & Mahall pure. We have awarded ourselves the Jazz Prize."
LP $19.85
09/09/2022
***The latest from the uncompromising John McCowen is a split release between Dinzu Artefacts and Astral Spirits. Models of Duration follows the same trajectory as McCowen's other amazing solo releases—Solo Contra (International Anthem, 2017), 4 Chairs in 3 Dimensons (Astral Spirits, 2018), Mundanas I - V (Editions Wandelweiser, 2018) but is also a whole world beyond those. McCowen continues to focus on extended possibilities of the clarinet family as well as acoustic phenomena (as with all his previous releases, there is no amplification or electronically generated sounds here) and it all shines through more dramatically than ever on Models of Duration. "Duration I" & "Duration II" bookend the record with similarly sustained and rhythmic drones that prepare us for what is to come & also bring us back into the real world at the end of the record. "Foggd" and "Hoskin" both traverse new levels of intensity that McCowen hasn't hit before. Just when you get settled into any of the four tracks on the album and think you know what's coming next, McCowen subtly shifts tones and sounds enough to surprise, while still maintaining a steady through line. While Models of Duration is technically a solo release, you will notice that Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Master Musicians of Bukkake, Eyvind Kang, Oren Ambarchi, Earth, Anna Von Hausswolff, Six Organs of Admittance, Marissa Nadler, Boris, etc) is credited and also plays a major role on the record. The overall arc of the album is in large part due to Dunn's...
LP $19.85
09/09/2022
***Master of Time is a live performance commissioned for the exhibition of Bardo Now, The Second Buddha: Master of Time at the Tang Teaching Museum during a residency on April 16-18, 2019. LP version contains the tracks "Confluence" and "The Way of the Clouds." Tracks 2 & 4 are digital only bonus tracks. Recorded by Frank Moscowitz at the Tang Teaching Museum 2019. Mixed by Eli Crews at Spillway Studio 2020
LP $19.85
06/10/2022
Jayson Gerycz - Drums & Percussion Dylan Baldi - Saxophone (of CLOUD NOTHINGS) John Kolodij - Guitar
LP $19.85
06/10/2022
Jackson, Keefe / Oscar Jan Hoogland / Joshua Abrams / Mikel Patrick Averu
These Things Happen
Astral Spirits
Keefe Jackson - Tenor and Sopranino Saxophone Oscar Jan Hoogland - Piano Joshua Abrams - Double Bass Mikel Patrick Avery - Drums "Epistrophy" & "Bemsha Swing" written by Thelonious Monk "Gotta Get Some Sleep" written by Dewey Redman "The Happenings" written by Herbie Nichols "Wimpel" & "Aanhanghuis" written by Oscar Jan Hoogland Arrangements on "Gotta Get Some Sleep," "The Happenings" & "Bemsha Swing" by Oscar Jan Hoogland Recorded at Bimhuis Amsterdam on April 29, 2016
LP $19.85
06/10/2022
Evan Cartwright: drums, vibraphone and guitar Josh Cole: bass Nick Fraser : drums Tania Gill: piano Brodie West: alto saxophone Recorded by Jeremy Darby and Julian Decorte at Canterbury Music Company on February 29, March 1 and March 2, 2020. Mixed by Matt Smith Mastered by Jeff McMurrich. Produced by the Brodie West Quintet Co-Produced by Matt Smith.
LP $19.85
06/10/2022
***The debut LP from RedGreenBlue posits a mesmeric, minimalist extension of Chicago's groove-based improvised music tradition. Over the course of two introverted, side-long pieces, the band patiently crafts hypnotic—yet still dynamic—sonic spaces using languid pulsations, careful shifts in colour, and occasional bursts of virtuosic urgency. It's music that hovers between worlds, unfurling a foundation of almost-ambient weightlessness that's inflected with audible spontaneity and given breadth through rhythm. The expansive result intimates connections to the most atmospheric corners of Miles Davis' electric catalogue, hints at Terry Riley's trance-inducing drones, makes oblique references to dub, and even nods in the direction of Town and Country's DIY chamber music. Yet, all the while it inhabits its very own aesthetic space—a gravity-defying blend of the ethereal and the earthbound that draws the ear in slowly and subliminally.
LP $19.85
06/03/2022
MP3 $9.90
06/03/2022
FLAC $11.99
06/03/2022
***Few bands in improvised music seem to generate more palpable sonic friction than Brandon Seabrook’s trio with Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver. The group produces a seriously tactile, almost psychedelic sound: the gut-punch of drums, the rumbling twang of diddley-bow, and the slashing, brittle crunch of electric guitar. On Exulations, the trio’s 2020 debut album on Astral Spirits, these sounds coalesced into gritty, propulsive improvisations possessed of an almost three-dimensional physicality. Those rhythmic and melodic fragments came together with puzzle-piece logic, like an aural Rubik’s cube, but one that never stopped moving. On the trio’s hotly anticipated follow-up In the Swarm, the group has broadened its timbre with Seabrook’s banjo and Cleaver’s electronics, and they’ve upped the ante with some thrilling post-production maneuvers that either further expand the sonic palette or turn the modus operandi upside down.
LP $19.85
05/20/2022
MP3 $7.92
05/20/2022
FLAC $8.99
05/20/2022
***"As an instrumentalist and a composer, Jessica Pavone’s creative practice encompasses and moves beyond developing a personalized voice on her instrument. Since 2012, she has established an individual body of material for solo viola, concentrating on the tactile elements of performance. These structured yet indeterminate pieces stem from intensive long tone practice and an interest in repetition, song form, and sympathetic vibration, resulting in four studio albums. This tour celebrates the release of the J. Pavone String Ensemble’s third album, …Of Late, on Astral Spirits Records and features Pavone on viola, with Aimée Niemann on violin and Abby Swidler playing both violin and viola."
CD $11.00
05/06/2022
MP3 $9.90
05/06/2022
FLAC $11.99
05/06/2022
***Happy to announce the latest from Chicago-based percussionist Quin Kirchner, this time in an intimate duo setting with France-based pianist Rob Clearfield. Concentric Orbits is Clearfield & Kirchner's gorgeous debut recording as a duo, although they have a long history of playing together over the years in Chicago. You will likely remember Clearfield from his standout playing on Kirchner's The Shadows and The Light (2020, Astral Spirits), and here on Concentric Orbits he takes a bit more of the foreground on the piano with Kirchner's solid, driving support moving the proceedings along. The two sidelong tracks offer different sides of the duo; "Orbit 1" dives in with a insistent and repetitive left piano groove that eventually unfolds into a splattering of free improv that subsides. Cymbals, bells and more from Kirchner lead us through the second half of the track, with Clearfield continuing variations on the original ostinato through to the ending. "Orbit 2" jumps out immediately with a percussive attack complimented by Clearfield's prepared piano that mirrors the percussive sounds without overpowering. Kirchner's groove rides powerfully through the majority of the track, with some truly stirring playing from Clearfield on the second half.
LP $19.85
04/22/2022
MP3 $9.90
04/22/2022
FLAC $11.99
04/22/2022
***Obstacle Illusion is born out of my love for a wide array of musics that I've experienced and studied over the years. The album includes edited live concert recordings from my 3-month European tour at the end of 2021 (Centro d'Arte in Padova, AngelicA Festival in Bologna and the Rassegna di Nuova Musica in Macerata). The first and fourth tracks are solo acoustic piano. The second and third tracks are solely with the Korg Wavestate: all live, no overdubs. This music is the result of a collaboration between myself and the engineers who developed these instruments as well as the halls, the audiences and the dynamics of the world at large. The music is genre-bending, code- switching, omni-idiomatic, internationalist, intersectional and intentional. It represents the culmination of my life’s experiences as a musician and a human being in dialogue with the universe.
CD $11.00
04/22/2022
MP3 $9.90
04/22/2022
FLAC $11.99
04/22/2022
***"We are beyond thrilled to present the latest from South African drummer / cultural worker / organizer Asher Gamedze. I'm sure many of you are familiar with his incredible debut Dialectic Soul (On The Corner, 2020) or his work with Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood, and we're happy to unveil another side of Gamedze's work with out side work | two duets. out side work | two duets is a very literal album as the album features Gamedze in a conversation of sorts, a recording made more for the enjoyment of playing together rather than being planned as a release. Quite literally, the record consists of two improvised duets, one with fellow Brothahood member Xristian Espinoza (who's artwork graces the cover and insert of the record as well) and one with Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls, Alvarius B., Sublime Frequencies). As Gamedze mentions in the liner notes, this is "Free time" - both in terms of the music itself and the multi-directional possibilities that each duo aspires toward. This record wasn't made to capitalize on anything, it focuses instead on those out side moments of possibility: music on the other side of Time. One of the things that makes Gamedze so unique is how his playing is both conversational but also slyly lifts up those around him. His writing and playing on Dialectic Soul drove the group behind the album, and the same can be said here on out side work | two duets. Xristian Espinoza &...
MP3 $9.90
04/01/2022
FLAC $11.99
04/01/2022
***First pressing of 700 copies on Black Wax. With collaborative artwork from Adam Francis Scott & Jaime Zuverza. Seven Bridges features: Jim Baker - Analogue Synthesizer; Sima Cunningham - Voice; John Hughes - Electronics; Nick Macri - Bass; Ron Miles - Cornet; Charlie Rumback - Drums, Guitar; Jason Stein - Bass Clarinet; Macie Stewart - Violin, Voice; John Tate - Bass; Greg Ward - Alto Saxophone; Krystle Warren - Voice.
LP $19.85
04/15/2022
MP3 $9.90
11/19/2021
FLAC $11.99
11/19/2021
***"It has been a while since I’ve heard an outside skronky rock-inflected jazz album quite like this. Naked City, Captain Beefheart, Henry Cow…comparisons are possible but don’t quite hit the mark. Strictly Missionary is a genuine supergroup of NYC-based creative musicians, including guitarist Wendy Eisenberg (who seems to be everywhere these days, do they sleep?), saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, bassist Richard Lenz, drummer Kevin Murray, and percussionist Nick Neuburg. Pitsiokos also contributes electronics, recorder, whistle, harmonica, and drum samples. At its best moments – throughout most of the album in fact—Heisse Scheisse is joyous chaos. The quintet seems to relish playing two or three different overlapping pieces of music. Case in point, Lapsarian begins with a labyrinthine riff-like structure that rapidly deteriorates into Eisenberg and Neuburg heading in their own directions. After a relatively calm and short interlude, Pitsiokos and Eisenberg both solo at the same time, but in an orthogonal fashion, before the overall structure is loosened once again to a more free-form exploration. This simultaneous adherence to form and discarding thereof is not easy to pull off, but is found throughout the album. Eisenberg, in particular, drives the group from within by way of gritty tone, speed picking, and note bending. Pitsiokis’s wailing on the recorder and whistle just adds to the weirdness. Elements of punk, funk, electronica, and blues pop up now and then. Nothing is out of bounds for Strictly Missionary."—Avant Music News
LP $19.85
04/29/2022
MP3 $9.90
10/29/2021
FLAC $11.99
10/29/2021
***The members of the all-star Artifacts Trio—flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Mike Reed—have long been recognized as torchbearers of Chicago’s innovative jazz scene, as well as the most prominent performer-educators in the third generation of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM), the historically vital, leading-edge Chicago arts organization. The trio served on the organization's executive board from 2009–2011, and their music advances the organization’s motto, “Ancient to the Future,” celebrating African-American culture while reaching across genres and integrating new, progressive ideas into the legacy of jazz and composition. Reviewing the band live, The New York Times encapsulated the Artifacts Trio sound: “Nicole Mitchell’s flute and Tomeka Reid’s cello met with Mike Reed’s cymbal-heavy drumming to make an aqueous sound that allowed itself to be warped and melted and spread about by the room.” As for their recordings so far, Tomeka Reid explains the trio’s intent: “The aim with our first record was to honor classic AACM composers – to bring our own approach to some of our favorite pieces by them, pieces that we thought would work especially well with our distinctive instrumentation. For this second album, we wanted to underscore that theme while also recognizing that we ourselves are also AACM composers—we want to contribute to that canon of music.”
LP $19.85
04/15/2022
CD $11.00
10/15/2021
MP3 $7.99
10/15/2021
FLAC $8.99
10/15/2021
***Sven-åke Johansson - drums, vocals; Niklas Fite - acoustic guitar; Joel Grip - double bass. Recorded at au Topsi Pohl, Berlin 10, September 2020 by N. Fite.
CD $11.00
10/15/2021
***The document you hold in your hands is a very special and beautiful document and for many reasons. There is a balance, an equilibrium to this trio that comes from an honesty of intent and from all 3 members being truly in the moment. This is something that can not be faked or if there is a small bit of excess it would show. But here all 3 members of the trio have an intrinsic sense of trio as a whole and that allows them to find their own space —keep true to their own space but allow the trio as an organism to unfold in natural counterpoint in a well paced-relaxed way which elevates the vast tonal elements of all the instruments to contribute to a sound garden that is clear and inviting. There is zero pretense in this music—all 3 members operate on a level of musical honesty that is really refreshing—no one is trying to prove anything and there is zero academic calculation here—just a reverence for the act of music making.
CD $11.00
10/15/2021
***Karl Berger, Vibraphones; Thollem, Piano. Recorded and mixed by Karl Berger at his studio in Kingston, NY, December, 2019. Edited by Thollem. "I had the great fortune to meet Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso at their home in Kingston, NY through Michal Bisio who also lives there, of course. I came to town to play a concert with Michael at the Lace Mill and Angela and I spent a few days in the area at Bill Brovold's place. Segments of a recording in duo with Bill as well as a duo with Michael are both included in the August compilation album in the series."
CD $11.00
10/15/2021
***NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!! We've been huge fans of the Crazy Doberman crew for a long time here at Astral Spirits HQ, going all the way back to hearing hell is within us (Castle Bravo, 2017). It goes without saying that their sound has evolved, shifted, changed as any good collective/group should over time. We were blown away when they handed over what was to become Illusory Expansion (Astral Spirits, 2020) and ran through two cassette pressings in a little over a month (also in the midst of a goddamn pandemic).
LP $19.85
10/15/2021
MP3 $9.90
10/15/2021
FLAC $11.99
10/15/2021
***Nick Mazzarella (alto saxophone, bells). Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), Avreeayl Ra (drums). Recorded live at Constellation in Chicago on August 30, 2019.
CD $11.00
10/15/2021
MP3 $9.90
10/15/2021
FLAC $11.99
10/15/2021
***"Here is a sonic palette of eight re-tuned pitches for piano and saxophone, explored in an attempt to expand harmonic empathy. The aesthetic that arises from this interrelating of the foreign with familiar reveals an intrinsic logic, or inherent beauty, that lifts hegemonic remnants of one temperament from another. And there, within where the Tao splits, every fundamental tone illuminates a person, resonating facets of every ancestral partial, sounding humanity from its source. Thollem has radiated this humanity ever since our first meeting at an improvisation class back in the early 90’s – the joy exuded on that day, from that piano, opened the sky for me. Liken this to our flat view from earth of a constellation-filled sky, where Thollem’s astral purview encompasses the depth of these distances, traveling near-to-distant between such destined points, his sound being as the line seen between the stars. To hear his sound, then, is to gaze up into creation and smile in awe, feeling a rotating canvas of ideas in ecstatic order, holding us together in generous surrender to a facet-pouring spirit of friendship. These Facets and Improvisations are from the very first sessions with this particular re-tuning, in San Francisco, capturing the compositions in their most essential form, while the Improvisations that close the album are from the very last session in Brooklyn. Altogether, here is a befitting resolution to a decades-long idea, delivered with/by a comrade whose life-arc in music completes my own."—Hafez Modirzadeh
CD $11.00
10/15/2021
***“We've been huge fans of the Crazy Doberman crew for a long time here at Astral Spirits HQ, going all the way back to hearing hell is within us (Castle Bravo, 2017). It goes without saying that their sound has evolved, shifted, changed as any good collective/group should over time. We were blown away when they handed over what was to become Illusory Expansion (Astral Spirits, 2020) and ran through two cassette pressings in a little over a month (also in the midst of a goddamn pandemic). So of course we asked Crazy Doberman if they would want to do a vinyl release to follow that up. After moving from the midwest to Richmond, VA, the Doberman crew set up a new studio space and christened it with the recording of their latest missive Everyone is Rolling Down a Hill a collection of studio experiments that goes beyond what this crew has done in the past and into new territory. The playing on Everyone is Rolling Down a Hill is less hurried with more space and atmosphere. There is still a dark midwestern basement vibe in the best way possible—serious kudos to the group for an album that sounds like a lost relic from another era, while still somehow being completely modern and inventive. There's less cacophony and more focus, sure there are the free jazz workouts like "Strange New Life Forms Emerge" that wouldn't sound out of place on Miles Davis' Dark Magus, but the Doberman crew also digs...
LP $19.85
08/20/2021
***"Albeit posthumously, we're thrilled to be able to release this amazing music into the world. Any remaining recordings of the late great Alvin Fielder deserve to be heard by a wider audience. The Very Cup of Trembling is the second release from the Alvin Fielder / David Dove / Jason Jackson / Damon Smith Quartet, following up on From-To-From (Balance Point Acoustics, 2014). A multi-generational approach to free improvisation that feels like a throwback to the good old days of FMP. The recordings that make up The Very Cup of Trembling were recorded in 2016 and unfortunately sat dormant until after Fielder's passing, fortunately for us though they are now seeing the light of day. The quartet played a handful of shows between 2013 and 2016 leading up to these recordings and it is evident in their playing. Sounding more fiery than ever, with Fielder (and the young age of 80 at the time of these recordings) truly leading the younger players throughout. Whereas From-To-From was a beautiful first time meeting of different generations, The Very Cup of Trembling sounds like a working quartet."
CD $11.00
08/20/2021
MP3 $9.90
08/20/2021
FLAC $11.99
08/20/2021
***The first duo album from Vancouver-based guitarist & oud player Gordon Grdina alongside legendary drummer Jim Black! This isn't the first meeting of course, as Grdina & Black have spent time together touring and recording with Grdina's Nomad Trio (also featuring Matt Mitchell), but Martian Kitties is a much looser and in some ways more exciting affair than their previously released recordings together. Grdina has made a name for himself as an inventive composer beyond just his incredible playing skills, but Martian Kitties finds both Grdina and Black having fun in a freely improvised setting! Comprised of 13 tracks that range from shorter vingettes to longer meditations, Grdina and Black let it fly—from the opening fire of "Martian Kitties" through lopping rhythms of "Short Scale" through the ending beauty in the hymn-like "Bear Handler." Grdina & Black stretch their skills about as far as they can. You can truly hear them having fun, like a throwback to a classic "blowing" session, allowing them to explore more possibilities—the gentle droning of "Black Lodge" (which I truly hope is a Twin Peaks reference since it sounds straight from the show), and the electronics laden "Fuzzy Goats." Martian Kitties might not be a landmark or [insert hyperbolic statement here] type album, but it sure is a helluva lot of fun and grows upon repeated listens. Grdina has continued to make his mark as a guitarist and Black here (now 3 decades into his career) makes us all wonder why he doesn't get more...
CD $11.00
08/20/2021
MP3 $9.90
08/20/2021
FLAC $11.99
08/20/2021
The first 7-inch vinyl of the American label Astral Spirits celebratestwo Swedish heroes—sax titan MATS GUSTAFSSON and electronics player, producer and the founder of the iDEAL Recordings JOACHIM NORDWALL (and member of THE SKULL DEFEKTS). Limited edition of 350 copies.
7" $9.25
06/18/2021
MP3 $1.98
06/18/2021
FLAC $2.99
06/18/2021
***On Exoplanet, Rob Frye generates an atmosphere in which drummers and improvisers orbit synthesizers, inhabiting a Goldilocks zone of electronic and biotic components. Some of the tracks were created spontaneously or composed of strict loops, but two of the arrangements are melodic adaptations of the song of Musician Wren. After working as a field biologist with the Institute for Bird Populations in California from 2012-2016, Frye began to slow down and transcribe birdsong, eventually developing a performative lecture called Hearing Hidden Melodies. "XC175020" and "XC222182" are not potential earth-like planets in another solar system, indeed they are individual birds recorded by Peter Boesman in the Amazon. This bird, known as Uirapuru in Brazil and La Flautista in Peru, reminds us of the mysterious sonic knowledge threatened on our very own home planet. On this, his first album for Astral Spirits and his first as a leader, Rob played woodwinds and synthesizers and directed a specialized crew, recruiting Bitchin' Bajas (Drag City) bandmates Cooper Crain and Dan Quinlivan on engineering and electronics. Ben Lamar Gay's cornet (International Anthem) and Macie Stewart's violin (OHMME) pitch and roll, fueled by the dual propulsion of drummers Quin Kirchner (Astral Spirits) and Tommaso Moretti (Amalgam), while Nick Ciontea (brownshoesonly) consults on modular synthesizer. Like the Uirapuru, Edbrass Brasil (Sê-Lo!) also searches through fallen leaves in some of his own work, though for sound not insects. On "Innercosmos" we he hear his unconventional wind tubes, and on "XC222182" his voice calling as instruments gather, playing the...
LP $19.85
05/07/2021
MP3 $7.92
05/07/2021
FLAC $8.99
05/07/2021
***All compositions by WADADA LEO SMITH, DOUGLAS R. EWART and MIKE REED, Recorded, mixed, and mastered by DAVE ZUCHOWSKI. Photos by MICHAEL JACKSON,
LP $19.85
05/07/2021
CD $11.00
04/16/2021
MP3 $9.90
04/16/2021
FLAC $11.99
04/16/2021
![Nights On Saturn (communication) by [Ahmed]](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/delivery.midheaven.com/n/143314/images/733102719296_main.jpg)
***"The journey of self-discovery, communing with the eternal sound. A musician steeped in multiple worlds; oceans apart yet closely connected in ancestral memory. Musicians such as Ahmed Abdul-Malik were able to experience the global community of sound warriors, drawing inspiration from ancient cultures to support personal investigation. The connection was made clear, the music of Africa would certainly influence the African in America despite the atrocities of the Middle Passage, chattel slavery, and continued racist violence that sought to sever any connection to the continent. The beauty of Malik’s investigation is this original fusion of new music (Jazz) of the African in America with ancient music of Africa. It is a shining example of collaboration in culture, where the music is allowed to shine for itself. This is the inspiration that is being tapped, being explored in this collaboration where rhythm is the basis for the sound. Just like Malik, they allow the spirit of the collective push the sound as the music develops into exalted chaos. Joy Be Upon Us!"—Luke Stewart
LP $19.85
04/09/2021
MP3 $9.90
04/09/2021
FLAC $11.99
04/09/2021